Ryan reassures conservatives wary of spending bill

Wednesday

May 3, 2017 at 11:30 AM

Ryan told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the most important win for Republicans was breaking loose from former Democratic President Barack Obama's edict that increases in defense spending be matched with equal hikes for nondefense programs.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan sought to assure conservatives on Wednesday that a massive government-wide spending bill is a win for President Donald Trump and Republicans, citing "a really good down payment" on rebuilding the military and "the biggest increase in border security in a decade."

Ryan told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the most important win for Republicans was breaking loose from former Democratic President Barack Obama's edict that increases in defense spending be matched with equal hikes for nondefense programs.

The House is scheduled to vote on the bipartisan $1.1 trillion measure Wednesday afternoon. It is a product of weeks of Capitol Hill negotiations in which top Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi successfully blocked Trump's most controversial proposals, including a down payment on the oft-promised Trump Mexico border wall, cuts to popular domestic programs, and new punishments for so-called sanctuary cities.

"What we really wanted to do is break the parity requirement that we endured under Obama, where if you wanted to put a dollar into the military for a ship, for a plane, for bullets, for gas, you had to give the domestic spending of federal government another dollar," Ryan said.

The White House boasted of $15 billion in emergency funding to jumpstart Trump's promise to rebuild the military and an extra $1.5 billion for border security.

"After years of partisan bickering and gridlock, this bill is a clear win for the American people," Trump said, citing the Pentagon and border money. "This is what winning looks like."

The opinions of top party leaders were not shared by the rank and file.

On Tuesday, however, Trump took to Twitter, angrily reacting to media reports depicting Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York as winners in the negotiations. He cited Senate rules that empower minority Democrats and tweeted that the U.S. government "needs a good shutdown" this fall to fix a "mess" in the Senate.

The pending bill buys five months of funding while Trump and his allies battle with congressional Democrats over spending cuts and funding for Trump's oft-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Ryan said "I am not even going to venture to guess" whether such battles might generate a shutdown, though Republicans were surprised by Trump's tweets and view the prospect of a shutdown as a political loser for them.